An actual announcement

I have been thinking about the name of this Substack—Indigiqueer confidential—and I realize that I haven’t reallllllly posted many confidential things. But that’s changing today.

I know it may not be the type of confidential posting you desire, queers and Indians and Indigiqueers and all, but this is a good one.

After much negotiating, I’m happy to announce that my employer, Stony Brook University, has agreed to start a program in Native American and Indigenous Studies.

This is huge. Truly huge.

I will be the inaugural director of this program, which, for now will consist of a Minor in NAIS, but will also do programming and provide scholarships, research funding for undergrad and grad students, and possibly (my hope is) start an Elder-in-Residence program.

But that’s not all! This year (though it isn’t announced yet) we will be putting out an ad for THREE (yes, three) tenure track jobs in NAIS (two at the junior level and one senior level), and also two more next year. So the idea is that this year we are hiring three new faculty, next year two more, for a total of five new TT faculty in NAIS.

We have several faculty members across departments (History, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Linguistics, Hispanic Languages and Literature, English, etc.) who teach related topics, but we don’t yet have a standardized curriculum. That will part of my work (with a committee) this year, in addition to working on the hires.

It is not often that you get to help start something from scratch in this game, and I’m really excited about the possibilities. Sometimes we are all “institutions are terrible!” and they are, but then again, sometimes they offer students ways of relating to knowledge and history and the world around them that can be transformational and empowering. My hope is that this program will be able to harness some of the work that is already being done at SBU (there is some), and make some meaningful contributions to the relationships with Native communities where SBU sits (occupied Setalcott land).

At the very least, I hope Native students (and they do exist) will be able to find a place that reflects back to them the hopes and aspirations of their own peoples, and can help them find meaning in those struggles for liberation, sovereignty, art, expression, etc.

This news has not even been announced by Stony Brook yet, so I’m really jumping the gun, but what is the use of having a Substack promising confidential Indigiqueer things if not to divulge these things. While we don’t yet have a website, I’ll be working on one in the coming weeks, the job announcements will come out mid-month, I and really hope that if you have good vibes or suggestions or encouragement, you can send them my way.

In the meantime, feel free to share this news, and be on the lookout for future announcements of an institutional variety. This is just a little Indian gossip.